South O’Brien community says tearful goodbye to Kenneth Weishuhn

Hundreds of mourners packed into Grace Lutheran Church today in Primghar for the funeral of Kenneth James Weishuhn Jr., the 14-year-old high school freshman whose death last weekend has offered a painful reminder of the tragic potential of rampant bullying. (Read more in today’s column about Weishuhn and this Storify blog post.)

Family, friends and fellow students of Kenneth Weishuhn cosoled each other this morning outside Grace Lutheran Church. (Rodney White/The Register)

Our early summer fled, and the weather was appropriately dreary — a blustery chill with persistent rain as the white hearse and its procession rolled from the church to Pleasant Hill Cemetery northwest of town for the burial.

At the service, family, close friends and fellow South O’Brien Community School students were given priority seating in the church sanctuary, while one overflow room alone was stuffed with 120 or more mourners who watched the service on a closed-circuit TV.

Pink hair and pink shirts in honor of one of Weishuhn’s favorite colors — orange is the other — were sprinkled throughout the crowd.

The service of course was grounded in faith and happy memories of the smiling 14-year-old. But the homily also implored Weishuhn’s classmates and community at large to put an end to bullying while remembering to forgive everybody.

The hymns “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art” book-ended the service.

After the service, South O’Brien Superintendent Dan Moore stood in front of a large pink sheet of paper in the school cafeteria in Paullina, where many of Weishuhn’s fellow students have scrawled sad yet supportive farewell messages. “Kenneth was an amazing person to tell everyone what he believed in,” one girl wrote. “He has changed my life.”

Flowers of sympathy from nearby school districts and other people lined the windowsill and counter in the high school office, intended for the Weishuhn family as well as the school staff.

Tucked inside his black suit coat, Moore carried a letter of support sent to him by a female sophomore student with the message “stay strong.”

“We’ll get through this,” Moore said as much to himself, it seemed, as to the pair of journalists who stood next to him. “We’ll get through it.”

One message that Moore gleaned from the funeral service: Take the hate and throw it out of here.

“We buried a student today,” the superintendent said. “We should never have to do that.”

As promised, Weishuhn’s 16-year-old sister, Kayla, read a poem at the funeral: “If Tomorrow Starts Without Me.” The somber verse has been spread across the web and Facebook (where Kayla noticed it) in different versions and has been attributed to at least a couple authors. Here’s a version that is at least similar to what Kayla read:

If tomorrow starts without me,And I’m not there to see;If the sun should rise and find your eyesAll filled with tears for me;I wish so much you wouldn’t cryThe way you did today,While thinking of the many things,We didn’t get to say.

I know how much you love me,As much as I love you,And each time you think of me,I know you’ll miss me too;But when tomorrow starts without me,Please try to understand,That an angel came and called my name,And took me by the hand,And said my place was ready,In heaven far above,And that I’d have to leave behindAll those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,A tear fell from my eye,For all my life, I’d always thought,I didn’t want to die.I had so much to live for,So much yet to do,It seemed almost impossible,That I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,The good ones and the bad,I thought of all the love we shared,And all the fun we had.If I could relive yesterday,Just even for a while,I’d say good-bye and kiss youAnd maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,That this could never be,For emptiness and memories,Would take the place of me.And when I thought of worldly things,I might miss come tomorrow,I thought of you and when I did,My heart was filled with sorrow.But when I walked through heaven’s gates,I felt so much at home.

When God looked down and smiled at me,From His great golden throne,He said “This is eternity,And all I’ve promised you.”Today for life on earth is past,But here it starts anew.I promise no tomorrow,But today will always last,And since each day’s the same wayThere is no longing for the past.

But you have been so faithful,So trusting and so true.Though there were times you did some things,You knew you shouldn’t do.But you have been forgiven,And now at last you are free.So won’t you take my hand.And share my life with me?

So when tomorrow starts without me,Don’t think we are far apart,For every time you think of me,I’m right here, in your heart.